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Skin Tightening on Your Lunch Break

Posted on: January 1st, 2017 by California Skin Institute

One of the reasons why skin tightening treatments are so important in achieving aesthetic goals is because loss of skin elasticity has multiple effects on how we look.* Of course, one of the most noticeable aspects of inelastic skin is the appearance of wrinkles, which gradually grow deeper.* But the loss of elasticity goes beyond that. It can affect our skin texture and can even profoundly change the contours of the face. The good news is that there are now many minimally-invasive skin tightening treatments that can be performed by your California Skin Institute provider to give the skin an added boost.*

How Minimally Invasive Skin Tightening Works

In order to understand how skin tightening treatments work, it’s important to consider why skin becomes inelastic in the first place.

During the early years of your life, your skin is very firm because it’s full of collagen and elastin fibers that form a strong support network. As we age, however, this support network breaks down. There are several reasons for this. UV radiation from the sun’s rays is a big player. Another reason has to do with a slower production of supportive protein fibers in our body. The cumulative outcome is skin that becomes inelastic and eventually sags.

To treat this issue, your California Skin Institute provider can administer a number of skin tightening procedures, including Exilis, Thermage, and Ultherapy, among others.*

At the very core, these treatments work by heating up deeper skin layers or creating micro damage.* Though it may sound counter-intuitive to damage the skin, small amounts of trauma will jump-start the body’s repair processes, causing it to produce more collagen in its attempt to repair the damage.*

Let’s take a closer look at some of these procedures.

Exilis for Skin Tightening

When using Exilis for skin tightening, the goal is to heat up the deeper layers of the skin to stimulate fibroblast cells to produce more collagen.* The heat is delivered in the form of radiofrequency bursts that penetrate the skin, without the need for incisions or surgery.*

There are several reasons why treatments with this device have become so popular with California Skin Institute patients.*

Firstly, there is no down time after an Exilis procedure.* There may be some mild redness, but this will dissipate in approximately quickly.*

Secondly, Exilis can be used on the face as well as the body.* This allows for skin tightening on the face, neck, arms, legs, and the chest.* It provides a comprehensive treatment plan that can improve overall aesthetic appearance and boost the patient’s self-confidence.*

Lastly, a great feature of Exilis for skin tightening is that it can produce long term improvement after the initial set of treatments has been completed.* In fact, the most dramatic improvements appear several months after treatment, when the body has had time to produce more collagen.*

Thermage for Skin Tightening

Thermage is similar to Exilis in that it relies on radiofrequency to boost collagen production.* A typical patient will need to undergo one treatment, with touch up treatments, as needed.*

As with Exilis, Thermage is associated with virtually no down time.* However, it’s still not a good idea to get it the day of an important event.* Even with minimally-invasive treatments it’s important to allow for extra time on your social calendar, to give the body time to heal.*

Ultherapy for Skin Tightening

When California Skin Institute providers use Ultherapy for skin tightening, the device also heats up the deeper layers of the skin to stimulate collagen production and strengthen existing collagen fibers.* However, instead of radiofrequency, this device relies on ultrasound waves.*

Typically, Ultherapy is administered to the face and/or neck, and many patients need just one initial treatment with subsequent touch ups to help maintain results.*

Threadlift

In addition to heating up the skin to produce a skin tightening effect, California Skin Institute providers can also manually lift sagging skin with the revolutionary Threadlift procedure, which includes NovaThreads and Silhouette InstaLift.*

The treatment is typically performed on the face or neck, but can also be used on other parts of the body.* It works by making a tiny incision and placing a thin, dissolvable suture under the skin.* The suture will have either small, flexible barbs or cones that latch onto the tissues, and can then be pulled upward to create a lifted appearance.*

There are several reasons why Threadlift has become so popular with California Skin Institute patients:

  1. The improvements are instantaneous, because the skin and tissues are lifted manually during the procedure.*
  2. There is virtually no down time, because the incision is as thin as a needle point.*
  3. Because the sutures are thin and flexible, they feel natural to the touch (you won’t be able to tell just by touching the area).*

Your Skin Tightening Procedure

If you’d like to tighten your skin and give your face or body a more youthful contour, minimally invasive treatments can go a long way in achieving your aesthetic goals.* You have more options than you think! To learn more, please call a California Skin Institute practice near you, or use the online scheduling portal.

*Individual results may vary and are not guaranteed.


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